Make your own hologram pyramid
All you need is a sheet of clear plastic and a phone to see a picture “float” in the air at home. The trick is called Pepper's Ghost: the four sides of the pyramid reflect the four pictures on the phone screen, so they seem to hover inside the pyramid.
For friends who cannot see the picture: every place has a spatial sound recording and a written description, so nothing is missed without a pyramid.
What you need
- A sheet of stiff clear plastic: an old CD case, clear packaging, or acrylic about 0.5 mm thick
- Paper, a pen and a ruler
- Scissors or a craft knife
- Clear tape
- A smartphone
Trapezoid template
The pyramid is made of four identical trapezoids. Each one has a short side of 1 cm, a long side of 6 cm and a height of 3.5 cm. Print the template below at 100% scale, or draw it on paper using these measurements.
Steps
Always have an adult help when cutting the plastic.
- Lay the plastic on the template and trace four identical trapezoids with the pen.
- Cut out the four trapezoids. Ask an adult to help: plastic edges can be sharp, and CD cases can crack if cut too hard.
- Tape the slanted edges together in pairs to make a pyramid that is open at both ends: a small opening (1 cm) at one end and a large one (6 cm) at the other.
- Open any place on this site that has a video, choose “Hologram mode”, lay the phone flat on a table and turn the brightness all the way up.
- Stand the pyramid small end down in the middle of the screen, on the little cross between the four pictures.
- Dim the lights and look from the side with your eyes level with the pyramid. The picture appears inside the pyramid, as if floating in the air.